The electric vehicle industry has made it possible for the world to have an alternative over the fuel powered vehicles and is evolving ceaselessly. These cars have become easy to maintain and recharge, can run on higher speed and are safe to drive. Many countries have initiated the manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (Evs).

China is leading the EV market accounting for 50% of global sales. Specific to the industry, it is vital for manufacturers to use the energy effectively for the vehicles to be efficient. There are many companies in the industry developing innovative solutions ready for the electric vehicle revolution. One of them is OVO Energy.

Founded by Stephen Fitzpatrick in 2009, OVO Energy is the UK’s largest independent energy supplier. OVO Energy’s success lies in combining digital technology and human insights to completely transform consumers understanding and relationship with energy. Its aim is to make energy greener, simpler and easier for customers. In 2016, OVO was awarded the title of the World’s Best Energy Brand.

Moving beyond energy retail, through new products and services, OVO is now addressing some of the society’s biggest and most complex challenges such as climate change, increasing renewable energy availability, urban air pollution, integrating electric vehicles onto the power grid and optimizing battery chemistry to avoid degradation.

When OVO was launched, it brought great service, clear information, and honesty into a market dominated by the Big Six energy suppliers. The company is looking at the bigger picture with its plans. It believes that advancements in technology have the power to solve some of the world’s biggest and most pressing problems and aims to use it achieve the same. OVO is blending energy with smart technology to bring their customers new propositions, great service and renewable electricity.

Surpassing Efficiency

OVO Energy has over 850,000 retail customers offering standard tariffs with 33% renewable energy and a green tariff offering 100% renewable energy. However, over the past year it has moved beyond retail energy. Their world leading intelligent platform VCharge can securely connect to a range of flexible device types like electric vehicle chargers and optimizes a range of real-time market signals to determine when to take action. To help realize the potential of VCharge, the company has launched the world’s first Vehicle-to-Grid electric vehicle charger, slashing consumers’ energy bills and helping balance the grid at times of peak demand. OVO has also launched its electric vehicle Smart Charger.

There is also a smart app to control V2G charger in more ways than one. Which means, the user can set charging schedule with the option to override them for unexpected journeys. The user will also be able to set minimum charge levels, and see live charging updates i.e. when the car is discharging or charging – so the user will always be ready to go, plus, keep a close eye on things by viewing historical charging data.

In the new world of distributed generation and storage, OVO believes energy technology will evolve at the same pace as consumer electronics, completely transforming the world’s second largest industry and rendering most existing business models obsolete.

The leader’s Tale

Stephen Fitzpatrick is the CEO and Founder of OVO Energy. One of UK’s most successful entrepreneurs, in ten years Stephen has built a business that now serves over 1m customers with over £1bn in revenues. Since launching the company in 2009, Stephen has remained at the helm, building a team of over 1000 people and picking up countless awards along the way, including UK’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014.

Prior to OVO, Stephen worked for JP Morgan and Societe Generale. Stephen is a Business graduate from the University of Edinburgh.

Embracing Challenges

As more consumers choose electric vehicles, the potential for large spikes in electricity demand increases dramatically. If the world wants a green future, companies need to find smart charging solutions capable of integrating growing numbers of electric vehicles onto the network without compromising energy security. OVO believes the Vehicle-to-Grid platform is a part of the solution to shift all non-urgent charging to off peak periods as well as allow cars to act as a reserve power source for the home and grid.

Future Ready

It is projected that there will be 1 million electric vehicles in the UK by 2020-22. One million electric vehicles would require nearly 2 TWh of energy each year, equating to more than £300m worth of electricity. The electric vehicle revolution will happen sooner than it is expected and OVO’s role is to make sure products and services are ready. In order to have a successful integration of electric vehicles onto the power grids, it’s essential that energy companies, the network operators and automakers collaborate. This means working together to avoid putting unnecessary constraints on the grid, to enable electric vehicle drivers to charge their vehicles using renewable energy and to help save them money.

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